Microcontrollers allow circuit designers great flexibility in design choice. However, programming the microcontroller to perform the desired functions can be an arduous task. Conventional software for programming microcontrollers is not very robust and does not offer designers many tools to reduce the amount of low level details they need to memorize in order to configure the chip.
Conventional software for programming microcontrollers is very difficult to use. In one system, many windows pop-up as the user attempts to program the microcontroller. Windows pop-up based on flat-organized drop down menus. Each window corresponds to a discrete function. However, many functions are required to do simple tasks. Consequently, the many displayed windows cause confusion because the user needs to keep track of which window is used for which function. Furthermore, it is very difficult to navigate between the windows because some windows overlap others. The user may have difficulty remembering which windows contain what information and which windows receive what information.
Once a circuit designer selects the various functions desired for the circuit, the designer must organize those function within the constraints of the available resources of the hardware with which the design is to be implemented. Conventionally, the circuit designer manually places the functions within the available resources of a programmable device. Unfortunately, this process is tedious and error-prone.
The circuit designer must also design the various interconnections between the selected functions, as well as configure the input/output pins. Conventionally, this can be an arduous and error-prone process. For example, the circuit designer must map the functions he has selected to actual hardware. Multifunction input/output (I/O) ports or pins may be very difficult to configure. They typically have multiple registers that needed to be programmed to configure the pin type as well as the drive characteristics for each of the I/O pins.
Circuits designers also desire to have a datasheet describing the circuit he has designed. Conventionally, the datasheets are generated manually by the designers. Each time the design is modified, a new datasheet must be manually generated. Thus, the designer time is not used efficiently and the possibility of errors in the datasheet is great.
Finally, in many conventional systems, the microcontroller devices are programmed manually. The programmer needs to know all of the registers and other technical information required to instruct the microcontroller to do its embedded functions (e.g., start timing, stop timing, etc.). Manual programming is very error prone and tedious and difficult to error check.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to provide a method which provides for a convenient user-friendly interface for designing a circuit by programming a microcontroller. It would be further advantageous to provide a method which may help reduce errors in programming a microcontroller. Finally, it would be advantageous to provide such a method for programming a microcontroller which does not require the circuit designer to memorize registers and other technical information to invoke functions when programming a microcontroller.